


What Fate Will Write

by mssrj_335



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adults Talking Like Adults Should, Angst, Assassination Plot(s), Badass Finn (Star Wars), Badass Poe Dameron, Battle Couple, Bounty Hunters, Brief Bed-Sharing, Deus Ex Rey, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Finn-centric (Star Wars), Hand Feeding, Happy Ending, Hokey Villains, Hurt/Comfort, Jedi Finn (Star Wars), Jedi Rey (Star Wars), M/M, Misc Force Powers, Nothing But Support In This Relationship, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Finn (Star Wars), Supportive Relationships, The Dark Side of the Force, The FinnPoe Sync™, dark side temptation, depictions of violence, mutual care, showering together, sort of lol - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:49:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25909894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mssrj_335/pseuds/mssrj_335
Summary: After the battle at Exegol, Finn thought they only had to worry about cleaning up the rest of the First Order. Putting the Republic back together. But now, someone's put a bounty on Poe and Rey and after months on the run, it's a miracle they haven't been killed or caught already. Finally, a break: they capture a hunter. Terrible visions of suffering haunt our heroes. An omen? Or just fear? With no time to find out, they must investigate who's behind the bounty. And end it fast, if they're to make it out alive.--Finn swallows hard. “Poe, are you sure about this?”“About as sure as I am of anything.”“So, not very.”“Hey. We’ll be ok. We’ve got two Jedi on our side, what could be better than that? Plus, I’m not so bad in a scrap myself.”“Yeah, but what if—”Poe anticipates and cuts him off. “The order was for us alive. I don’t think they’re gonna off me as soon as I get down the ramp.”Finn purses his lips.“It’ll be all right,” Poe murmurs.
Relationships: Finn/Poe Dameron, Poe Dameron/Finn
Comments: 61
Kudos: 54





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Posted daily until complete  
> many thanks to gmariam for the prompt and feedback  
> thanks also to natthemess and agrippaspoleto for their thoughts as well!
> 
> this won't be AS long as some of my others, i'm trying to limit myself here folks lol

_Five years after Exegol, Coruscant airspace_

“Poe, what the kriff is going on up there?!”

“Kinda busy here, Rey!”

Poe yanks back on the stick, speeder spiraling up and over and Finn feels his guts rearrange as the force of it pushes him flat. Stars, the things that man can do in the air. Whoever’s following isn’t quite as good. They swerve, try to correct, but their transport’s too bulky for that maneuver and it puts them broadside in his sights. Finn shoulders his rifle, takes a deep breath, tuning out the tinny taste and smog-heavy smell of the air. Adjusts left, just a hair, fires. Two blasts shake the speeder behind the engines, and the thing starts to plummet right into Coruscant’s underbelly.

“Down, down!” Finn shouts but Poe’s already pushed their speeder into a nosedive.

The transport below them smokes, the hatch opens and some six-limbed creature is scrambling out and onto the side. With a jetpack. Of course there’s a jetpack. Kriff, they’re too far away to catch him in the speeder and if the bastard jumps, they’ll never get him.

Finn spares a sideways look at Poe. “You can catch me, right?”

“Gimme some resistance when you get there!”

Poe’s eyes are a little afraid but not enough to stop him. Without another word, Finn tosses his blaster in the floorboard and vaults over the side.

As soon as he hits the air, his stomach turns with vertigo. But only for a second. He pulls his limbs tight, angling toward the ship and the Xexto fumbling to secure the jetpack. The hunter moves to jump—not quick enough—and Finn rams right into him, knocking him clean off the side of the transport and into the open air. The impact nearly knocks the wind out of him, two of the Xexto’s four hands grapple with him as he screeches something Finn doesn’t understand. The other two hands work to get the jetpack going. Finn wraps a leg around the creature’s thin waist, getting in a few solid punches before the pack ignites, burning through Finn’s pants to his leg. _Shit,_ that hurts. He clings to the Xexto’s skinny flight suit as the jetpack yanks them upward, punches again and nails a clip just below the Xexto’s helmet, snapping his head so hard Finn can see his eyes spin. The good news is that pretty much gets him an unconscious bounty hunter. The bad news is that it sends them into a tailspin.

“Shit, shit shit shit, come on!”

Finn gropes around the jetpack control, managing to deactivate the thing and get them upright. Stories and stories of buildings whip by, the air’s flapping his ruined trousers against his burn. Damn, that hurts _worse_. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots a lumbering transport. It’s barreling towards them. Oh hell—he swerves to get them out of the way—another speeder warbles over them, driver shouting obscenities in their general direction. And, to top it all off, the ground’s coming up quick.

_Kriff, where’s Poe?_

“Finn!”

_Finally!_ Poe flashes by, maneuvering the open cockpit under them. Finn can’t say anything back just yet, too focused on landing and not falling out of the speeder again as Poe scoops them out of the air. Thankfully, Poe still flies as well as he talks and Finn manages to haul the hunter into the back seat. Only when he finishes securing all those dextrous Xexto limbs does he settle back into the passenger seat with a cheeky, adrenaline-heavy grin.

“What took you so long?”

Poe just rolls his eyes with a fond shake of his head, Coruscant security finally rolling up beside them. “Hope we get somewhere with this.”

Finn glances back at the Xexto and the wreckage below. Yeah, he hopes so too.

Later, holed up just outside an interrogation room, Poe kneels between Finn’s knees, rubbing some bacta into the burn while they wait.

“What is this? Ten in two months?” Poe murmurs. “And we’re no closer to getting to the bottom of this.”

“I know,” Finn sighs, indulging himself and sliding a hand through Poe’s curls and down his jaw. “But we actually managed to catch one this time. Rey’s working with him, surely she’ll get something.”

Poe doesn’t say anything to that, just presses his face into Finn’s palm for a second before finishing up his patch job. There’s a quiet in the room, the same quiet that always settles after they do something dangerous. Finn sighs again as Poe settles next to him, leaning into him in a warm line as much for support as to be supported. Finn threads their fingers together. Stars, what a mess.

They haven’t seen this much action in nearly a year. After Exegol, Finn and Poe and most of the Resistance kept working to clear out First Order strongholds, bring ex-troopers back into the galaxy’s fold. The rest of the time between has been spent in meetings, negotiations. Rebuilding the Republic, as it is. That’s what brought them to Coruscant in the first place. There were funds to be found, how could they refuse? The only problem with all of this is that _someone_ has put a bounty out for the Poe, and Rey. And whoever it is must be fronting a lot of money because between them, it’s not exactly a low-profile hit. These hunters mean business and they’ve only managed to narrowly escape each one.

Finn’s having a hard time keeping track of them all, to be honest. Some hunters are seasoned, some brand-new. All hungry for credits. One was stupid enough to let Poe draw him into a dogfight. Ended up destroyed over Corellia but also managed to leave Poe’s ship disabled and floating in space. No easy feat. BB-8 had railed at them about it for weeks. They’d only figured out it was a bounty and not an individual when a second batch came shortly after during a mission to Mon Calamari. _That_ group was much smarter, rigging their new flagship to disable after launch. It had just been Finn and Poe that time, and they’d barely managed to fight the boarding party off. That was where they found the first tracking fob keyed to Poe. But nothing else. The only hunter left alive escaped, leaving them stranded in space with no way to get a distress signal out. It took Poe and BB-8 nearly three days to restore systems with how extensive the damage was. All the while, Finn festered on a question. At the same time, another hunter chased Rey and Chewie in the _Falcon_ on return from Lola Sayu. Luckily, Rey was as good on guns as anyone. So no new info there either. More just kept crawling out of the woodwork, catching them any time they left base for more than a day. It’d been another month on their toes. Sleeping light, checking security on Ajan Kloss, but there was work to be done. They couldn’t just _stop_. There wasn’t anything to go on; the tracking fob turned into a dead end when it died. They had nothing. So, they kept working.

It hounds Finn though, the echoing question: Why Poe and Rey and not him?

Now, this one. _Finally_ , they have one, despite the hunter’s best efforts. And maybe Rey could provide some answers. She’s better at mind tricks than Finn, more experienced, though he _is_ learning and catching up quick. Just as his thoughts turn to her, a door creaks open and she appears in the hall ahead of them, BB-8 hot on her heels.

“Guys? I got something.”

Finn blows out a hard breath and gets to his feet. “Please tell me it’s good news.”

Rey glances down and around, suspicious as always. “Come on,” she tosses her head. “Let’s go. Coruscant security will take care of him from here. He’s not getting out for a while, that’s certain.”

“So, what? We’re not even gonna talk to him?” Poe frowns.

BB-8 warbles negative and Poe’s eyes narrow.

“You don’t need to.” Rey glances back at Finn, passing him a tracking fob and identification chit that make his stomach drop. “You _could_ , but I doubt you’d get anything new out of him.”

“You ok?” he asks softly, trying not to limp after her quick pace.

She seems to notice his leg then and slows to something more reasonable. “Yes. Persuasion’s not the same as a mind probe. And it’s easier to do when whoever you’re trying to convince is discombobulated a bit.”

Finn tries not to wince. He _did_ hit the Xexto pretty hard. He’s probably lucky his thin neck didn’t snap.

Poe prompts, “Which is?”

“His name’s Sinevies. It’s a private hit, not through the Bounty Hunter’s Guild, though our friend here did work for them. A group called F-8.”

Finn frowns, some kind of bad feeling prickling in his skin. “Are they new? I’ve never heard of them.”

“I haven’t either.” Rey rounds a corner to a turbolift. As the lift judders to the surface, she says, “Whoever they are, they’ve got connections. Plenty of money. They put out a hit for you and me, Poe, as we suspected. Orders to be taken alive if possible but anything would do. They could catch us both or just one, it doesn’t matter. There’s a reward for each of us.”

“So someone wants us bad, is what you’re tellin’ me,” Poe mutters.

“Very.” The doors slide open to a landing pad where the _Falcon_ waits. “Instructions were to deliver us—or our corpses—to Vardos.”

BB-8 chirps sadly, rolling closer to Poe’s heels than before.

“Don’t worry buddy,” Poe runs a soothing hand over his droid’s dome. “We won’t be corpses, not a chance.”

Privately, Finn hopes he’s right because Vardos? That’s not good. That’s not good at all. As they board, Poe falls quiet, pensive. Finn can sense there’s an idea stirring in him and it’s probably not going to be good. Once they’re back in their own ship, Rey seems to relax. The _Falcon_ is as much home to her as anywhere else, especially when compared to Coruscant’s chaotic atmosphere. The humdrum of the place reminds him of life on a star destroyer, always someone coming and going. You never really know just who’s been in your space, no matter how much the planet’s security boasts. Finn makes a note to scan the ship for bombs before they leave.

“Vardos used to be controlled by the First Order,” he says, sliding into the round dejarik seat next to Poe while Rey paces. “And the Jinata Security Force that took over after Exegol isn’t much better. Do you think this has something to do with them?”

“It’s not clear,” Rey huffs. “Our hunter met up with a contact here on Coruscant, actually. Just after the last one failed. Whoever it was gave the name of the group that’s doing the hiring, a rendezvous point on Vardos, and a very large price tag to come back to. But nothing more than that.”

“So, we need to check this out,” Poe pipes up.

Rey stops pacing and Finn stares at him.

“Poe—”

“No no, look, all I’m sayin’ is that someone’s tryin’ to kill us. We know who. We know where. We know they have a ton of money up for our names.”

BB-8 squawks negatively. Yeah, Finn doesn’t like the idea either. He glances at Rey this time, pursing his lips. He tries again. “Poe, I know where you’re going with this—”

“Then you agree with me!” Poe exclaims, resting his elbows on the table, waving a hand to make a point. “If we don’t find out more about this, they’ll just keep sending hunters after us. You know the odds as well as I do. We won’t be able to duck them without injury forever. Hell, these bastards _already_ got you, Finn, and they’re not even _trying_ to kill you. I can’t stand for that!” He pauses, trying to get a handle on his temper, looking between Finn and Rey. When he speaks again, his voice has lost some of its heat. “We won’t be able to run. And I don’t want to, do you?”

Finn pulls a hand down his face. “Of course I don’t want to, but do you really think there is a _plan_? What are we supposed to do?

“We can’t just go in there blasters blazing,” Rey adds. “You two are the leaders of the Resistance. If something happens to you, this group F-8 would still win. I could go—”

“There’s people who would still run the Resistance. Besides, you can’t go alone,” Poe bites out, “even if you are a space wizard. How would you find them? There’s no way you’d make it.”

“But three of us would?” Finn scoffs. “We have no idea what to expect!”

“Look, it’s two Jedi and a damn good pilot, I’d say our odds together are pretty good.”

Poe sits back and crosses his arms. A sure sign he’s getting defensive. Finn resists the urge to pull at Poe’s hands.

“Just hear me out here. We have the element of surprise. Finn poses to deliver the quarry. They don’t want you, there’s not a bounty for you, so we put you in a costume and make you Sinevies partner. We have his tracking fob and chit, we have his ship. It’s docked somewhere, right? F-8 might think it’s a bit suspicious if both of us were caught but one ain’t bad and it’d be enough to convince anyone that’s paying out the ass for us. How could they pass it up? So we meet at the rendezvous point, find their hideout. Let them take me in. And we pack in enough explosives to blow the place sky high when we find out where they’re holed up.”

Finn’s eyebrows creep up. He can’t help it. This plan’s a little more covert than he expected, and a little more violent. But as he considers, it might not be half bad, actually. They have an in…

“Finn, you’re not seriously considering this are you?” Rey asks, incredulous.

He glances at Poe, at those pretty, dark eyes. A vision of them glassy and pained and then empty cuts through his mind and makes his gut clench. _What was that?_

“I don’t like you being bait. I wouldn’t like you as bait either, Rey,” he says, cutting his eyes to her as she opens her mouth. “We could send someone else. You know we could, and they’d be happy to do it.”

A line in Poe’s jaw pulls tight. Finn knows he hates that idea before he even says it. “I don’t want someone to get killed for this,” he murmurs. “And it won’t work without either me or Rey to deliver. Even if we sent someone to canvas Vardos from top to bottom, it would take months we might not have. And F-8, whoever they are, might relocate in the meantime and we’re back to square one. It’s only a matter of time before a hunter gets brave enough to attack us at home. The way I see it, infiltration is our best bet.”

Hesitation still pulls at Finn’s stomach. Something about this just doesn’t feel right. He’s not trying to be vain, but _why_ is it only a bounty for Poe and for Rey? He had as much a hand in destroying the First Order as they did, and so did many others. If it _is_ an Order remnant, wouldn’t they be after him too? If it’s not the First Order, who is F-8? Why are they after Poe and Rey?

Answers only seem to lie ahead.

“Ok. Let’s do it.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> self-edited as always  
> if you see something say something lolol

They scan the _Falcon_ first, just to be sure. BB-8 whistles from one end as Finn finishes on the other, and when Poe and Rey emerge from the interior with no news, Finn figures it’s probably good news. Nothing doing. It takes a little while to find the other ship. Sinevies certainly tried to hide it, but after a quick visit to swipe the hunter’s locator beacon, they finally find the ship tucked in a landing structure dozens of kilometers away.

Poe is not impressed.

“This is absolutely criminal. What a piece of junk!”

Finn shakes his head, smiles as Poe circles the flat, crescent-shaped ship with a critical eye. Poe ducks under the cockpit, trailing a hand over a modified torpedo system and a stock set of laser cannons. “These things haven’t been made since _before_ the Empire. If our friend Sinevies would’ve taken better care of this baby, it might actually be a collector’s piece.”

Rey eyes the craft skeptically. “You sure about that?”

“Be careful,” Finn warns. “This thing is bound to be rigged.”

BB-8 whirs in agreement, already scanning the ship’s surface for traps.

“Oh yeah, I’m sure.” Poe stops his wandering when BB-8 squawks a warning. A quick pass of the security force’s borrowed disabler fries a rigged explosive on the far edge of a crescent wing. “If I remember right, it’s a JumpMaster. Used by the old Republic to scout new hyperlanes, I think. Faster than our old X-wings, without a doubt.” He stops again at BB-8’s insistence, defusing another rig. “Incredibly sensitive sensory array, if it hasn’t been destroyed. I would imagine Sinevies found it useful in his line of work. Probably how he tracked us in the first place.”

Finn hums, stops at the underside of the loading ramp, pointing out a trap for Rey to fry. Stars, Sinevies really didn’t want anyone running off with his ship. Not without getting hurt anyway. The contraption sparks as BB-8 finishes its scan, beeping an affirmative when Rey asks, “Are we clear?”

“The only downside is the hyperdrive,” Poe says as he crosses the landing platform. He eyes the security panel at the loading ramp, pulling the keypad loose and fiddling with the wires. “I’ll check when we’re on board, but JumpMaster drives are notoriously slow, prone to breaking down.”

The ramp descends with a hiss under Poe’s clever hands and Finn feels a little thrill of pride. It’s short-lived though, quickly overtaken by disgust as they board the ship. Apparently, the dingy outside should’ve been a clue to the inside. Sinevies is _not_ in favor of clean living. There’s debris strewn everywhere, a musky sort of stench pervading the interior. But, there are still functioning living quarters, a common area, and a whole cargo hold full of weapons. Poe meanders to the cockpit with BB-8 while Rey makes faces Finn feels mirrored on his own. The old bird coughs to life within a few minutes—no danger then.

“Let’s take it back to base,” Poe says as he reemerges. “We can get the team to do a full sweep and clean, pack it full of whatever we need.”

Rey nods, mouth pressing into a thin line. _Uh oh_. Finn takes note of what Poe might gloss over and the message is perfectly clear: Rey’s not happy about this. At all.

“Why don’t you take BB-8?” he suggests. “I’ll play co-pilot with Rey, we’ll meet you there.”

Poe nods once, clasping Finn’s forearm in that familiar way of his. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Finn squeezes his hand, then turns and follows Rey back to the _Falcon_. He doesn’t say a word—and neither does she—until they’re out of Coruscant airspace and hurtling through lightspeed back to Ajan Kloss. Blue spirals over her face, highlighting a tight line in her jaw. Just like Poe. Finn sighs to himself. Sometimes the pair of them are so similar he could scream.

He turns to her, mindful to keep his feelings open and his body language inviting. No reason to get her guard up when he says, “You don’t like this.”

Well, no reason other than that.

Rey snorts, shooting him a side-eye glare that would’ve withered a lesser being. “And? Apparently you and Poe already made a decision. I’m just along as backup.”

“If you think it won’t work, why didn’t you say something?”

“It’s not that it _won’t_ work. I’m afraid that it will.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Not for the first time, Finn curses his inexperience. Rey’s path through the Force has always run parallel to his, just a few steps ahead. He still can’t access that same prescient ability she can, not unless he finds himself in the thick of battle. This case in particular frustrates him more than most because he can _feel_ something there, he just can’t see it. But maybe Rey can.

“What is it?” he asks, sitting forward.

There’s a lengthy silence but Finn’s long since learned to be patient. Rey’s reticence just has to be waited out. After a few minutes, Rey finally sighs and turns away from the _Falcon’s_ controls to face him.

“I…I had a vision. I haven’t had one like it since before Exegol.” Finn’s spine draws ramrod straight. Rey looks him over with more than a little fear mired in her eyes. “It’s not clear. It’s all static, hazy. Like I can’t get it into focus just yet. But I feel that these F-8 people are more than they seem on the surface. You’ve been asking the same question I have.”

Finn nods, searching the floor as if it would give him answers. “Why you and not me?”

“ _Exactly_ ,” Rey breathes. “It doesn’t make any sense. Of the two of us, I’d argue you’re certainly a bigger wrench in potential bad guy plans. If it were that, why not you and Poe? If they were out to destroy the Jedi—again—it would be you and me, not me and Poe. Where would this group have even gotten our data for the fobs?” She pauses, turning back to the blue. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they’re not targeting you, but it begs the question: Why?”

He contemplates a moment, rolling the question around his mouth like a heavy durasteel ball. “It feels…pointed,” he tries. He’s not sure that’s the word he wants, so he tries another. “Taunting.”

That feels better. Or worse, as the case may be.

“It does.”

When she doesn’t say anything more, Finn asks, “What was your vision?”

Rey’s eyes widen and suddenly she’s that scavenger from Jakku again, vulnerable and afraid. A far cry from the placid Jedi she’s growing into. Finn can tangibly feel her fear in the air between them. It smacks metallic on the back of his tongue, acid on the palms of his hands. He reaches out, settles a hand solidly on hers and tries to project calm—the only thing he can think to do.

“I don’t know,” she whispers. “I don’t know where or how, but I know it comes down to this: either I die…or Poe does.”

The revelation stings his blood, kicking up a deep, dark fear in his heart. The thought of losing either of them is painful, too painful for any measure. But, he takes a deep breath. Determined not to spiral in it.

“No one knows the future, right? Leia would say it’s always in motion, no fate is certain. Whatever we come up against, we can beat them. It’s what we do.”

Rey sighs, squeezing his hand back to acknowledge the comfort though she looks unconvinced. “I hope you’re right.”

Privately, Finn hopes he is too.

Finn spends the rest of the flight scheming, working out the best plan he can for this potential suicide run. _It’s not going to be one_ , he reminds himself. But, he’s never wanting when he prepares for disaster, so that’s exactly what he does. When they enter Ajan Kloss airspace, Rey radios down what to expect for Poe. She leaves Finn on the tarmac after they make a plan for the morning, ready to retreat to her solitude. Finn sets about organizing for a clean and sweep, and weapons. Should probably take a speeder bike too, to follow when they take Poe. He schedules a briefing for the morning. Rey and Poe will need protection, so he finds the most discreet blast-dampening armor he can that will fit under their clothes and at least give them _something_. He even manages to hunt down appropriately bounty-hunter-esque gear to wear. Bits and pieces that had floated around the armory for ages. It seems suitably dramatic. Lightweight armor like his stormtrooper gear, a grey and black mottled poncho, and a helmet sporting a fully polarized face shield. All for the purpose of obscuring his identity and hiding as many weapons as possible. And it should do nicely.

Even after all that, Poe still hasn’t returned. Finn’s hungry, but he finds he can’t eat. He does collect some food, leaves it for later in their bunk. For when Poe’s back. _This is stupid_ , he thinks. They’ve not even left yet and a dark fear’s already sitting heavy, controlling him like a marionette. But Rey’s words and his own strange vision weigh on him, so to assuage his nerves, Finn sets about painting the armor and helmet matte black. His leg aches as he works. Rey doesn’t do healing much anymore; too taxing, it leaves her disoriented for hours or even days. Distantly, he thinks about getting some more bacta for it. Later, he’ll get it later. This first. He even scuffs the job when he finishes, rubs dirt and grease all over to sell it. He sets out blasters, thermal detonators, knives, the works. Straps them all to a silver utility harness that lays acceptably under the poncho. There’s even a hook for his lightsaber, recently constructed and ready to be used in more than just practice. Finn trails a finger over its blackish body thoughtfully, hoping it won’t come to that.

At nightfall, Poe finally arrives and Finn can breathe again. The speed disparity is abundantly clear: nearly five hours elapse the _Falcon’s_ arrival and Poe’s. Finn tries not to jog onto the tarmac then gives up halfway through, barreling into Poe as he descends the landing ramp looking bleary-eyed and exhausted. There’s no one around to see; who cares?

“Hey, hey sweetheart, what’s goin’ on?” Poe rubs the back of Finn’s neck and Finn can’t help tightening his grip some in response.

“Just worried,” he mumbles to the crook of Poe’s neck. More reluctantly than he’d admit, he drops his hands to Poe’s waist. Then pulls away completely, leaving one hand at the small of Poe’s back as he haphazardly leads the general to their shared quarters and to a late dinner.

“I told you that thing was slow,” Poe says, and BB-8 chitters something that probably translates to, _Yeah, he told you so_ before rolling off to charge for the night _._

“I know. Still worried though.” Finn steers Poe past the command center right to their bunk.

“Finn, I need to talk to staff, get everything ready.”

“Taken care of.” Poe doesn’t look convinced, so it pulls the truth all the way out. “Well, I haven’t talked to anyone about the plan yet, but I scheduled a meeting for the morning, before we go. Everything else is ready.”

“Everything? Did you get—”

“Charges? Yes. Got weapons lined up, clean and sweep, bike, disguise. I got it.”

Poe pauses at the door to their quarters, cupping Finn’s cheek and gently swiping a thumb there. “What would I do without you?”

Finn’s always loved how tactile Poe can be, especially when he’s tired. This feels a little different though, and he suddenly wishes Poe would never be tired again. The dark circles under his eyes are just the slightest indication of how ragged this bounty hunter nonsense has really run him. Finn feels the same exhaustion, situated deep in his muscles. That vision slices in his mind again like a bad hack job: this familiar face drawn, screaming, eyes pained and glassy. His fear blooms a little more, poisonous. Is it a vision? Like Rey’s? Or is it just worry painting his inside with that harsh, acid feeling? He’s just not sure. But he kisses Poe’s hand and makes himself grin, pushing it down where he can’t see it anymore.

“Hopefully we’ll never have to find out,” he smiles. Then, he pushes Poe gently inside.

Poe yawns, settling on the bed as he rubs his hands over his face. Finn nabs the plate of food he already set out before joining him, passing Poe a piece of bread to start without a word. Only when Poe takes a few bites does he eat himself. It helps to settle his nervous stomach, eating and making sure Poe eats. They sit in silence for a while, Poe chewing aimlessly, staring off into space. Finn can’t help doing the same, his hand passing Poe pieces on autopilot. It’s then he realizes they haven’t eaten for nearly a whole day. Between the meetings and the chase and everything else, there just wasn’t time. _Stars, no wonder we’re tired_. Poe lifts a hand, Finn snags a canteen of water and passes him that too.

“You’re gettin’ good at that, you know.”

Poe takes a drink and hands it back. Finn frowns, and Poe seems to get the message. He rolls his eyes fondly, doesn’t try again until he’s had a few more swallows. _Never did drink enough water._ Satisfied, Finn puts the canteen back on their bedside table and asks, “At what?”

“The whole mind-reading thing.”

Finn scoffs, handing Poe a slice of fruit. “Just because I get you water doesn’t mean I can read your mind. That’s not how it works.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Poe teases, bumping his shoulder into Finn’s. “How else do you always know?”

“I just know you,” Finn shrugs.

Poe shifts a bit, just so their knees are touching now and he can see Finn more fully. A little warning bell sounds in Finn’s head, especially at the look in Poe’s eye.

“You wanna tell me what’s goin’ on?”

Finn glances away, bites into a strip of meat instead of answering. That gave him away for sure, but he can’t quite look at Poe to convince him otherwise.

“You and Rey have that Jedi thing goin’ on,” Poe continues, waving his hand in a vague circle. “I don’t even have to see her to know that. She gets that same look when she’s got bad news. So, what is it?”

Finn sighs, handing Poe the other half of meat. He’s got that stubborn expression though. He won’t eat it until Finn talks, damn him.

“It’s nothing, I think. You know how Force visions are.”

“So there’s a vision?”

_Damn_. “Well—”

“Finn. Please.”

_Damn damn_. Poe really doesn’t have to say any more than that, does he? It’s just part of what they’ve become, what they’ve grown into since Exegol. They share. And it’s good for them to do it. Poe knows parts of him that would otherwise never see the light of day, and Finn knows fragments of Poe that can be as dark and fragile as his own. Doesn’t make it any easier though. Finn hasn’t forgotten the last time he kept something like this back. It tore him up to do it. He was just afraid. Just like now. A small part of him wishes Rey had never said anything. Then he could’ve gone headlong into this plan with only the usual amount of worry. But, Poe’s waiting, patiently so. Finn takes a breath to get his mind situated. Maybe he can share the part he’s sure of. That’s a safe bet.

“Rey had a vision.” _I did too, I think_. Though he doesn’t say that. “Death.” Poe’s hand creeps onto his thigh, resting warm there. “She said…she wasn’t sure exactly where or how, but she felt that one of you’s gonna die.”

“And you’re worried she’s right.”

Finn sighs gustily, shaking his head. “I don’t want to be. It’s just—we both have a bad feeling about this group. F-8.” He snarls. “It’s _frustrating_. I can _feel_ something bad. Like there’s something I’m not connecting. But I don’t know what it is. I just wish I was better at this.”

Poe hums, thoughtful for a few seconds. Were it three years ago, Finn would worry Poe’s afraid of him, of this power he hasn’t quite learned to control yet. Rey had only just returned to train together then and his first steps into the Force were wobbly at best. Destructive at worst. That’s since come to pass and all Finn can feel from Poe is concern. Faith. It’s soothing, in a way. Poe believes in him even when Finn doesn’t.

“I know this isn’t ideal,” Poe murmurs. “I wish there was something else we could do. If you really don’t want to do this, we can wait it out. But I think if we don’t do something, it’s just going to get worse.”

Finn wants to argue, but with what? It’s been months of dead ends. Despite the bad feeling, Poe’s right. It’s only going to get worse.

“How ‘bout this?” Poe tries, drawing Finn’s gaze back to his face. “We go with the original plan but pack some backup. We give Rey a homing beacon, get someone to take the _Falcon_. They can follow after and wait for a signal in orbit, swoop in to save the day if we need them to, huh?”

The suggestion makes him feel marginally better. There’s still a dark cloud hanging on him but it eases a little more when Poe guides him into the ‘fresher and then into bed. It’s only here on Ajan Kloss, in the middle of their base, curled into Poe with the door locked tight, does Finn feel safe. He tucks Poe into his chest, his back to the door, buries his face in Poe’s neck. A lifetime of isolation leaves him craving the contact; Poe enjoys it anyway. Sticking to him like a dianoga might not keep his general any safer, but Finn likes to pretend it would. Poe doesn’t say anything about it. And Finn doesn’t say anything about the blaster Poe keeps under his pillow, because he’s keeping one there too.


	3. Chapter 3

The meeting in the morning goes about as well as expected. Finn summarizes their Coruscant chase and people are already looking grim. Then Poe shares his plan and it’s an absolute uproar. It takes some convincing, and maybe a few Force vibes to keep everyone calm, but they do eventually designate an acting general—Rose, naturally. There’s plenty of volunteers for the _Falcon;_ Chewie takes Jess, BB-8, and a few others as backup with instructions to wait in orbit. Then there’s nothing left to do but leave.

It takes a few hours to actually get to Vardos. Rey spends the time pacing the JumpMaster, cockpit to commons. She confers with Poe every time she passes him. Is the hyperdrive all right? How much longer? Where are we? Exasperated, Poe stays in the cockpit, keeping an eye on the hyperdrive. Finn’s pretty sure it’s more because he’s still not convinced the thing would make the jump and less because Rey keeps asking him questions. As for himself, Finn leans back, crosses his arms, and closes his eyes. Even with his eyes open, there’s still flashes. Visions of pain, suffering. Poe, and Rey. It must be his fear. Maybe Rey’s palpable nervous energy, or Poe’s thin confidence. The shaking of the ship, the stale smell of apprehension—maybe a combination of all of it that keeps feeding these terrible rushes of horror. Finn’s been in battle before. Flown in on troop carriers shakier than this. Felt more fear from stormtroopers than he can feel from his friends now. So _why_ do these things keep clouding his mind? The more he thinks on it, the more it seems less like his own fear and more like a warning. But it’s too late to do anything about it now. Even if it _is_ a warning, they can still come out of this. If their track record is anything to go by, they’ve fought and survived worse.

“Vardos, comin’ up quick,” Poe calls.

_Ok. We can do this_.

Finn heads to the cockpit, Rey close behind, steadying himself on the wall as the whole craft shudders and groans. Stars, whatever atmosphere they’re barreling into is rough. It reminds Finn of Exegol. Flashes of lightning, rolling thunder, and sheets upon sheets of pouring rain streak the transparisteel. Finn recalls a First Order history lesson as the ship descends. Operation: Cinder. The Empire’s last ditch effort at destroying worlds. Climate disruption arrays, which the First Order had been looking to replicate. Storms like this weren’t natural, and all the more difficult to navigate because of it. But Poe is the picture of focus, switching over to the ship’s large sensor array, flitting between visual and digital scanning. The ship lurches again but Poe steadies it with just a touch. He flips another switch and guidelights bathe the planet’s surface in harsh white. Poe circles the rendezvous point once. It’s nothing but a landing platform and a guardhouse, tucked into the mountainside. Obviously not a high traffic area. In fact, they might be lucky if it holds the ship’s weight at all.

Poe eases the JumpMaster to the platform, engaging the landers with a hiss. Finn sees movement through the guardhouse windows. For a second, neither Finn nor Poe nor Rey make a move. A quiet, taut unease stretches through the cockpit. Poe is the first to break the silence. Striking forward as always, ever ready.

“You guys good?”

Rey automatically replies, “No.”

Poe sighs as he turns in the pilot’s seat and rises. “C’mon, show a little optimism here.”

Finn tries to smile; Rey doesn’t try at all. Poe shakes his head, “Unbelievable,” and pushes them into the common area. Finn exchanges a look with Rey. In the commons, Poe tucks a knife into each boot. Finn rechecks all his secreted weaponry—yes, everything’s still there. His fingers itch for his lightsaber but pulling that is a guaranteed give-away. Poe seems woefully naked with only his vibro-knives but risking a blaster would only get them caught. This is a risk as it is. Instead, he fishes the false binders out from under his poncho. Poe turns, offering him his back, hands already clasped together. Any other time he’d probably be a little breathless at the blatant trust. Now, it just makes his stomach turn.

“You’re sure these’ll come off, right?” Poe asks. His voice only sounds a little uneasy. He hides it well; Finn only catches the barest tremor.

“I’m sure,” Finn soothes, clicking the binders around Poe’s proffered wrists. “These are the same ones Han and Chewie used to use on missions. Just give them a tug and they’ll come right off.”

Poe tests them once, satisfied with the way they pop. “You got your beacon, Rey?”

She spares him a nods, pulls on her pack. It probably weighs as much as she does, stuffed to the lip with explosives, but she hefts it over her shoulder with no problem. Finn just hopes it’s enough. Together, they stand at the loading ramp, tension ratcheting tight.

“I’ll have the swoop ready,” Rey says as she adjusts her pack straps. “At least this mess will give some cover.”

With that, she ducks into the engineering bay, to hide out just in case anyone comes aboard. Poe shuffles and Finn moves to put the binders back on. But, he hesitates. A terrible feeling balloons in his chest. He looks between the binders and Poe’s hands, then his face and back. He wants to say something, anything, but words swell in his throat and choke him. Poe takes a step into his space, pressing his forehead to Finn’s. That chokes him a little more, especially when Poe bumps their noses together and rubs his hands up and down Finn’s arms.

“Remember, you hand me over. Come with if you can, follow behind with Rey if you can’t.”

Finn swallows hard. “Poe, are you sure about this?”

“About as sure as I am of anything.”

“So, not very.”

“Hey. We’ll be ok. We’ve got two Jedi on our side, what could be better than that? Plus, I’m not so bad in a scrap myself.”

“Yeah, but what if—”

Poe anticipates and cuts him off. “The order was for us alive. I don’t think they’re gonna off me as soon as I get down the ramp.”

Finn purses his lips.

“It’ll be all right,” Poe murmurs.

With that, he leans in the rest of the way, a quick kiss before he turns back to the landing ramp and punches the code to let it down. Finn fits his helmet on, activates the visual processors. The descending ramp lights in muted shades, Poe’s jacket shifts in and out of focus as the processors adjust. Poe puts his hands behind his back again. This time, Finn secures them. He hefts his blaster rifle tight to his chest.

“Ok. Let’s go.”

They get about halfway down the ramp when Poe stumbles on purpose. Finn makes like he’s shoving, Poe barely catches himself on the platform—it’s all part of the plan. In a matter of seconds, they’re both soaked. Rain thrashes left and right but Finn follows just behind Poe in the direction of the guard house, playing as though he’s leading Poe on. As they near, the door opens and Finn almost stops in his tracks.

Stormtroopers.

No, no that’s ok. Well, not ok, but expected. It’s Vardos, it would make sense for F-8 to be stormtroopers. The place used to be crawling with them, Finn remembers. Wonders. Does he know them? He manages to catch his feet and move forward before anyone would see the hesitation. When they get to the door, Poe turns back for just an instant, pausing just long enough for Finn to get a hand on him and push him inside. It looks rough; Finn just hopes no one notices the way his fingers linger. The trooper at the door swings it shut, blocking out all the noise of the storm. The only sound left is the steady drip of water from their clothes on the floor. Three other troopers stand around them, weapons ready. One on each side of the room, the fourth—red pauldron, obviously in charge—on the other side of a small table. All the hair on Finn’s body stands up and that feeling of _bad bad bad bad_ almost strangles him. He muscles through it.

“The bounty,” he says shortly. His voice is tempered in the helmet but better to say little, in case he _does_ know these troopers.

He pulls the identification chit from under his poncho, sets it on the table. The leader scans it, hesitates. Finn tries to breathe, keep his cool. He hadn't realized how much he'd come to rely on facial expressions until right this second. The trooper's body language suggests suspicion but he reaches into a pouch on his hip, drawing out credits and dumping them on the table. Out of the corner of his eye, Finn scans the designations on each breastplate he can see. FN-3181. FN-3156. And in the red pauldron, FN-2198. In a sudden moment of clarity, Finn’s positive that the other trooper behind him also carries an FN designation. _But how_? What about Starkiller? The destruction of all the First Order fleet? _How did they survive?_

“Payment, in full,” FN-2198’s voice crackles through his bucket, the modulator frayed and scratchy.

Finn hesitates himself. Is that really it? The stack of credits is sizable enough to distract anyone. And maybe that’s the point. He’s not falling for it. Finn keeps his eyes on the troopers as he scoops the credits from the table. Shit, he didn’t bring a satchel. Not a bag or pouch anywhere. That’s a glitch in the performance, hopefully not too noticeable. He shoves the credits into his pockets. As soon as his hands start moving FN-3181, who is closest, starts patting Poe down from head to toe. 3181’s hands are rough. Too rough. Like he’s enjoying it.

“Take it easy pal,” Poe jostles under the pressure, one foot sliding forward to steady himself—“you miss me or somethin’?”—until 3181 kicks his calves. Poe’s knees hit the floor with an audible crack and Finn flinches, raises his blaster a fraction of an inch.

Oh.

Oh no.

Every trooper freezes. Finn sees everything unfolding just seconds before it happens—2198 raising a rifle at him—3156 and the trooper behind training their blasters on Poe—3181 yanking Poe’s head back by his hair. Then all he sees is red.

A split second, he’s across the room. The butt of his rifle cracks 3181’s helmet; he crumples. Finn spins, Poe behind his legs, saber’s in his hands, blaring to life with an angry purple glow. It's tight, too tight to maneuver. 3156 fires— _stun round, why?_ —it disperses on his blade. Part of it rebounds, crackles into the lights overhead so they bust, rain glass and smoke. He parries another—0606, the trooper that stood at the door. Finn raises his saber but 2198’s faster. The trooper shoots low, the stun round shocking into his thigh so it collapses beneath him, useless. Teeth grit, he growls—Poe shouts his name—anger, fear rise hot in his chest and all he wants to do is tear forward, get them out, get back to the ship and home and safe and—

Then he feels Poe’s hands on his back. Hears the electric hum of busted lights, smells an acrid stench of blaster fire and smoldering durasteel. Then he sees. All of the troopers’ blasters are trained on them now. Except 3181, who’s still out cold beside them. He wasn’t fast enough. And there’s no getting out now. He can’t deflect all of them, another stun round will put him out. Poe only has his knives, he wouldn’t stand a chance like this. It’s then he notices just how hard he’s breathing, the seething feeling expanding and contracting in his chest. His lightsaber crackles in front of him, mirroring his anger as it spits and simmers.

“Put it down,” FN-2198 says, staticky still. “Or we _will_ open fire. No stun.”

0606 and 3156 glance at each other. “Sir—”

“I know what _he_ said,” 2198 barks, “but I also know _this_ man better than you. Either we take his weapons, or we die.”

Finn considers a moment more, then 2198 moves to make good on his threat, fires a solid, deadly bolt so it sizzles just above their heads. Ok. Point made. Poe squeezes his side once, and Finn lets his eyes close for a fraction of a second, thankful no one can see him past the mask. His saber deactivates. The room is near silent again, save for the buzz of ruined electrics. FN-2198 gestures with his rifle and the other stormtroopers fall on them. Binders click painfully around his wrists, then around Poe’s and they’re pulled apart. Only when they’ve divested him of every weapon, piling them in a sizable heap, does FN-2198 unshoulder his blaster and stalk forward. He yanks the helmet from Finn’s head, staring down, skeletally sinister.

“Welcome back, 2187.”

FN-2198 raises his blaster, the barrel hesitates on Finn’s chest for a split second, barely pressing into his armor. Then, 2198 flips it, smashes the rifle’s stock into Finn’s temple once. Twice. The room spins, Finn’s stomach heaves, and everything goes dark.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know how you write an entire story for just one bit? these last two chapters are it lololol
> 
> as a warning, we get into some darker stuff here. dark side temptation (and use), poisoning, lots of fear, anger, angst. and a bad guy obsessed with suffering >__> but i promise i'll resolve it in the next bit as best i can lol
> 
> i understand if you skip the chapter (it's a long fuckin chapter) but for those of you that don't, i sincerely hope you enjoy.

Finn jerks awake with a gasp, immediately closes his eyes and groans against bright stabbing light. Blindly, he flails out, left, right. It takes him a moment to even register what he’s looking for.

Poe.

_Where’s Poe?_

His head is throbbing but he manages to sit up, finding himself sprawled in a cell, hands bound with tight plastic ties that bite into his wrists. Just the kind of bindings he can’t Force open, damn it all.

"Poe?"

No answer.

"Poe, where are you?"

Still nothing. Panic claws at Finn's chest but he takes a deep breath to try and tame it. Another breath, and he closes his eyes. Reaches out like Rey taught him to. Looks for Poe's presence in the midst of all the dark. Distantly, he senses Rey, coming closer. Poe, somewhere tucked away. Hurting. A nasty dark feeling quickly overtakes the panic and Finn stumbles to his feet. He needs to get out. _Needs_ to. Has to find Poe. There’s gotta be something he can do. For a split second, he lurches forward. Fiddles with the cell door until he realizes—

Down the hall, a door hisses open. Boots approach. Maybe he can get out. Finn tucks himself back into a corner, not exactly out of sight but out of immediate eye line. Two troopers approach the cell door and as one activates it, Finn moves. He grabs a trooper by the wrist, yanks him inside the cell. Kicks out into the other with what Force he can focus and the trooper's armor crunches. He smashes the first into a wall. With his hands bound, he's only able to crack the trooper into the plascrete a few times before the second gets his breath back and his blaster going. Another stun round stings into the backs of his knees—Finn shouts, sinks as both legs quit. _Shit_. He spins on his knees, more boots echo down the hall. Three more troopers fall in—suddenly every limb is immobilized and they're hefting him down the hall.

He wriggles, yanks his arms as much as he can. Legs still won't quite work. "Let me go! Where are you taking me?"

Unfortunately, he gets his answer soon enough. The troopers haul him into a wide, mostly empty room, two limping behind. There's a few tables and chairs around—must be a common area. Or what's left of one. The whole of it has a burnt-out, decrepit look. The last vestiges of a fallen empire. Two troopers dump him on the floor, take up posts right behind him. He lands hard enough that his numb legs actually hurt. Troopers with different designations bring in Poe. The pilot's fighting for all he’s worth, his lip is split, bleeding, gag in his teeth and cutting into his cheeks. As they wrestle him into a chair and bind him, Finn sees his bloody knuckles. _Gave them a fight_. Poe’s eyes are a little wild but they settle when they find Finn. His heart aches and that dark feeling gets a little darker.

"Poe." Finn struggles to his knees, falls forward. The troopers behind him yank him back. He reaches out with bound hands, and in the Force almost unconsciously, as if he could touch Poe across the distance. In a low voice, he asks, "Are you all right?"

"I'm not sure he can really answer you."

Finn rounds, nearly falls over again when a familiar face slithers through the room. The only trooper without a mask, pieces of his plain white armor replaced with chromium. Pauldrons, vambraces, one thigh cover. A long, jagged scar beneath his hard dark eyes, mouth an angry slash.

_It can't be_.

"Didn't think you'd see us again did you, traitor?"

"Zeroes?"

FN-2000. His squadmate. One he thought he'd lost, the only one he hadn't led to death. A strange sort of numbness settles on Finn when he realizes this must be all that's left of the FN corps. People he'd been raised with, fought, left behind. Zeroes prowls over, picking sweaty curls out of Poe's face with one gloved hand. Fear seethes in Finn’s throat.

"When you defected, they told us how many troopers you killed. Punished us, like it was our fault. That wasn't what made me hate you though, the punishment."

“Zeroes—"

"You left us. Nines was so _angry_ when you left. You let Slip die, then you left and it was just me and him." He pauses. Considering, with something like sadness. “And then it was just me. Until _they_ found me.”

He nods to the other troopers in the room, some of whom straighten under his gaze. Whether it’s respect or fear, Finn can’t rightfully tell. There’s a solid mix of both and it permeates the room, malodorous. Zeroes pushes a hand through Poe's hair, tilts his head. Poe tries to jerk back but Zeroes’ fingers tighten and Poe winces. Anger snarls tight in Finn's chest.

"Don't touch him!"

Zeroes cuts his eyes over, a smile twisting his face that has Finn’s skin crawling. This isn’t the Zeroes he knew before. Not that brash young man eager to prove his loyalty, nor the man angry at Finn for hesitating in that first mission. This is…something else. There’s no hesitation left, just malice. Fury.

“All that you see here escaped Starkiller by virtue of deployment. Survived battle after battle with your pitiful little band,” Zeroes spits. “I knew— _we_ _knew_ —that the First Order wouldn’t fall to bugs like you. That’s what Phasma called you, you know. A bug in the system. A failure.”

He pauses long enough to pull a strange-looking pistol from his belt. The Force pulses terribly around it, ratcheting Finn’s fear tighter.

“And _somehow,_ this bug almost destroyed the system. There were only eight of us left from FN corps. But we found others, came together, stronger than before after Exegol. We’ve been rebuilding, look at what we’ve accomplished with so few!” The troopers in the room beat their chest armor twice, thick with pride. “We’ve captured the traitor and the general of the Resistance!”

Gods, the whole display makes Finn’s stomach turn. “Just because you have us doesn’t mean the Resistance will die,” he hisses. “The whole galaxy is against you now, there’s no way you can win by killing us.”

That doesn’t seem to shake Zeroes at all.

“You think that’s what this is about?”

A cold knot hardens in Finn’s throat. “What else would it be?”

“Oh Eight-Seven, this is much more personal than that.”

Zeroes crouches in front of him, eyes as cold as kyber. That doesn’t sound good at _all_. Shit. He grasps Finn’s jaw, fingers digging in. Considering again.

“I was cleaning out a settlement in the days leading up to Exegol. All of FN corps was with me. We swept through it like a wave. Quick, efficient, just like they trained us. I don’t think I’d ever seen our officers so pleased. But there’s always someone who has to get the last word in. This old man said, just before he died, ‘Your might is no match for what fate will write.’ He went on and on about how fate will pen our end, that the First Order would never prevail. Blah blah blah, Eight-Seven, it was so _boring._ To tell you the truth, I didn’t care for that. Why should some _force_ , some unknown in the galaxy have _any_ say over us? No.” He shakes his head, shoving Finn’s face from his grasp. “ _We_ decided we’d write our own fate. We started with eight. Now we are more. We don’t have to be Phasma or Hux and take the galaxy by force when we can rip its guts out from below. We are fate, and we write the story.”

“Are you seriously telling me you put all that together just to be dramatic?” Finn spits. “I didn’t realize the First Order grew ham-fisted _jokes_.”

That earns him a kick, _fuck._ Finn doubles over when Zeroes’ boot knocks all the air out of him. The trooper’s lip snarls but it doesn’t stop Finn’s vicious grin.

“Struck a nerve huh? So much for the galaxy’s greatest warriors. Reduced to crawling through the galaxy, hiring bounty hunters to catch your enemies.”

He’d go on, say whatever it is he has to say to keep Zeroes going because he can feel a change. The trooper’s face gets a little crazed, zealous. He’s letting his grip slip, buying too far into his own bullshit. And that aside, Finn feels something new. Rey. She’s finally closed in, others are with her. All they need is a little more time and maybe they can get out of here. So yeah, he should keep at it.

But Zeroes has changed tactics. “Bounty hunters were a guarantee, not a necessity. Any way it came out, we win. They kill your friends, you suffer. They bring your friends in alive, you _suffer_. They kill you? Well, they may have missed a few steps, but that’s the end goal here.” A sinister light glints in his eye and he prowls back to Poe. Fits that strange gun under Poe’s jaw, right in his jugular. “You know how to kill bugs, Eight-Seven? You use a poison.”

“Don’t!”

Finn’s heart flails wildly and he pulls as hard as he can against the troopers holding him. Could he use the Force and get out? Yeah, of course he could. If he could focus on more than the point of contact between the dart gun and Poe’s neck. Poe locks eyes with him, somehow saying _It’s ok, it’s all right_ with just a look, even though his quick breath betrays him.

“Our story starts with you. You destroyed _everything_. You took _everything from us_. So it’s only fair we return the favor.”

Oh no, no no no no—“Don’t hurt him, please!”

Zeroes snarls, pulls the trigger. Poe’s whole body clenches as a dart drives into his skin and he groans as dark liquid empties into his veins.

“No!”

Fear pours out of Finn in a palpable quake. The troopers holding him stumble back a bit, the others along the wall pull their rifles.

“Here’s your sentence, FN-2187!”

Zeroes sounds manic, filled with that same fervor all First Order officers showed. He steps back, nods once to the guards holding Finn. Without a word, they release him and Finn crawls forward as fast as he can. He can finally feel his legs again, though his hands are still bound. He holds Poe’s face, bringing his lolling head down so their eyes meet. “Look at me. Look at me! Sweetheart, I promise, you’re gonna be all right—”

“For the crime of treason, murder, and betrayal of your First Order code, we sentence you to suffer. We’ll keep your friend on the brink of a drawn, painful death. Feed him antidote and poison in equal measure as long as he can survive.”

“Poe!” Poe’s eyes are already glassy. Pained. His pulse is racing against Finn’s fingers. Oh gods, he’s seen him like this before. _The vision_ —

Zeroes pulls Finn away, sending him sprawling on his back on the floor. He fits his boot over Finn’s throat, bearing down so it’s all Finn can do to drag in a breath.

“You’ll watch him suffer again—” He steps a little harder. “—and again—” Black starts to creep into Finn’s vision. “—and again. Just like we had to do. We’ll find your friends and do the same. Rey. And all the rest. We know where they are and you’ll live, until every single one of them is destroyed.”

Abruptly, Zeroes steps back. Hauls Finn back to his knees. Forces his face to Poe, who’s already starting to shake all over. _Kriff, where’s Rey_? Finn can barely sense her, he’s trained too much of his attention on Poe, but she’s there.

Zeroes bends so he’s right in Finn’s face, voice no louder than a whisper. “You’ll lose everything you love, you’ll be just like me. And then, we’ll destroy you.”

There’s more that he would say, Finn can sense that. The fucker would keep monologuing forever if he could. Finn’s fear morphs into white-hot anger, burning through every inch of him. He reaches out in the Force as wide as he can, feels every person in the compound. For an instant, there’s a temptation just within his grasp. Stretch out. Squeeze. It would be so _easy_. Finn shakes himself. Can’t do that, can’t do it. _Focus_. He’s looking for Rey. He pushes the anger down and tries again. _There she is_. Finn turns his face up to Zeroes, and there must be something more than a little frightening on it because Zeroes pulls back. A flash of fear feeds the dark in Finn’s chest and he grins.

“If you think I’ll let you do that, you’ve lost it. And if you think my friends will let you either, you’re crazier than I thought.”

In a split second, Finn gathers his will and pushes out in the Force as hard as he can. Zeroes flies into the far wall just as the whole compound shakes and the ceiling starts falling in around them. The troopers in the room scramble and Finn takes his chance.

He staggers to his feet, dashes to Poe. The troopers haven’t noticed yet. The distraction’s getting louder—explosions popping closer and closer to their location. Finn grabs the back of Poe’s chair, drags him. Troopers fire after him, blaster bolts zinging by his ears. They miss, dust too much of a haze for a clear shot. Then Finn flips a table, drags Poe down. The chair lands hard and Poe groans but he’s already starting to fight against his bonds even as the poison does its work. Under their flimsy cover, he digs the gag out of Poe’s mouth, squeezes his face, kisses him rough and greedy. Poe kisses him back for a split second, then gasps out,

“Boots.”

Knives.

The table’s starting to hiss under fire, more of the ceiling collapses.

“Are you ok?” Finn digs into the side of Poe’s boot for his vibro-knife. _How did they miss it?_ Must not have looked very hard. In an instant, he cuts his own plastic bonds, then Poe’s.

“For now.” Poe rubs his wrists. “What do we do?”

“Ask me in a minute,” Finn says. He’ll come up with a plan then, surely. They need weapons. Need the antidote. Maybe he can run out, Force push some other troopers out of the way? It’s suicide, but he has to do _something_. He moves to a crouch, spares one last grasp to Poe’s hands—and the ceiling crumples again, a heap of limbs smashes him flat.

“Ow, _kriffin’ hell—_ ”

“Finn!”

“Rey!”

Like a bomb and an answered prayer, Rey lands right on top of him, amazingly with his lightsaber already in hand. Out of the corner of his eye, Finn spies troopers picking their away across the debris. The table sizzles under their barrage; it’s not going to last much longer. He snags the saber from her grip, lights it up and pops over the table in less than a second.

“Hey!”

“They poisoned him,” Finn shouts, deflecting two blaster bolts. One hits its mark, the others keep coming.

“Yeah they did,” Poe groans, curling in on himself. “Shit _hurts_.”

“There’s an antidote—” He misses a deflection, shouts when a bolt hisses and burns his arm. “ _Fuck._ Zeroes knows where it is, we have to find him.”

“Who is Zeroes? What the hell are you talking about Finn, there’s no time! I set charges all around the compound, this whole place will be up in smoke in minutes! Chewie and the others are outside, drawing fire. We’ve got to get out of here!”

He manages to pick off two more troopers, then he ducks down. Rey’s eyes are wide, but her hands are already on Poe’s, ready to heal though she knows the cost. _Are you sure_ is what he should ask. But he can’t bring himself to do it. She’ll be all right, he’ll make sure of it. So he turns to the fray as Rey turns to Poe. He can feel her power, cutting through the smoke and the haze, shuddering in the air. Two more troopers down. Poe moans a bit, sucks in a breath through his teeth. Finn can feel her healing complete, just as he can feel her slump in exhaustion.

“Rey,” Poe asks, “you still with me?”

For a second, Finn’s afraid she’s lost consciousness. But he can still feel her there. Barely. There’s a few more troopers coming, time is pressing. _Damn_ —

“Wait here!”

Without another word, he darts in.

Poe shouts after him. “Finn, you ass! Come back!”

He scoops up a blaster, lobs it back to Poe. Hears him scramble for it then smiles grimly when Poe lays down suppressing fire. There’s four troopers now between them and the exit.

No problem.

Finn stretches out in the Force, feels a new, dark vein of it coursing through him as he hefts his saber. He slices left, sprints forward, cuts another’s legs out from under them as Poe’s blaster bolt spins them off-balance. Anger seethes in his blood, fuels his hands with a vicious fire. Thrust forward, third one’s down, turns to the fourth and they fall before he touches them, a hole smoking where Poe nailed them.

The way is clear.

He sprints back to the others, hooking the saber back in its rightful place, hauling Rey’s arm up over his shoulder as Poe gives him a guarded look.

“Can you walk?” Finn asks.

“Don’t have much of a choice, do I?” Another explosion shakes the building and Poe smirks mirthlessly. “Besides, [fighting with you](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Force_valor) always gives me a little extra zip. I can do it.”

Finn cocks his eyebrow, a question there, but Poe shakes his head. Another time then. He fits Rey against him, gesturing for Poe to lead. Of the two of them, Finn’s the one with the most energy and as much as he hates Poe on point, the pilot couldn’t carry Rey right now if he tried. Poe knows that and takes position. Somehow he always knows what Finn’s planning. So Finn follows, picking his way carefully but quickly across the ruined commons tight to Poe’s back. Another charge rattles the building, more debris falls here and there. Poe checks out the door, leads the way up the hall. Finn’s not sure where they’re going, but Poe seems to be. A few more turns, there’s a door. A light at the end.

“Traitor!!”

Finn glances back—Zeroes is charging up the hall at them. Bloodied, blaster running full out. Poe shouts, fires back. The saber’s in Finn’s hands, deflecting what he can in a purple blur. Rey stumbles beside him, trips under the concussion of another charge.

That split second, and that’s all the time Zeroes needs.

Finn sees it all before it happens, just like before. Zeroes raises his blaster in one hand, the dart gun in his other—blaster fires, then the dart—poison pin zips through the air—but not at him. At Rey. He brings the saber up—too slow. The dart buries in her arm and the blaster bolt wings by, clips Poe in the thigh. They both shout, fall. He stares where they sprawl, and Finn’s whole world comes shuddering to a great, heaving stop. Something inside him just…snaps.

Finn sprints at Zeroes, closes the distance in the space of a breath. The saber’s forgotten, tossed aside. Edges of his vision alternate red and white. Blood and armor. He _needs_ the antidote, has to have it, Rey can’t heal herself. Poe needs a medic, needs help. They’re _not_ going to die. He won’t let that happen. _Can’t let it happen_. He tears Zeroes’ weapons away, fits his fingers under the breastplate of Zeroes’ armor, hefts him up and into the wall. For the first time, Finn sees fear. Real fear. And before he can stop, think, get a handle on himself, he pounces on it. The Force surges around him, a reddish miasma, scraping through him and out his throat, “Where is it?”

Zeroes kicks out at him but Finn can’t even feel it. He drops him, pulls a right hook and feels Zeroes’ teeth crack against his knuckles through his cheek. Forces the trooper back into the plascrete so hard his armor screeches.

“ _Where is it?_ ”

Zeroes smiles bloody at him.

Anger turns to rage turns to frenzy, Poe and Rey falling, screaming on repeat in his head.Zeroes _knows_ where the antidote is and he won’t give it up. Finn will find it. He has the tools to find it. It’s _right there_ , just waiting for him to use. So he does. He reaches out, physically and with the Force. There’s the sensation of expansion, ballooning, pins and needles turning to knifepoints and it concentrates. Zeroes’ eyes widen, Finn meets a little resistance, then he turns all those knives on Zeroes and tears in.

Glimpses of memories flit past, faces long gone. His own face even. Zeroes screams. Fears, hopes, disjointed thoughts. It’s all a jumble, a garbled mess of soupy sensations and slippery subconscious. This isn’t what he wants. Not what he needs. Finn narrows his focus to a single thought, one scalpel’s edge instead of a thousand. _Antidote_. And a path appears. From where he is now to an office. A desk. A drawer. Locked. In it, an orange vial and another dart gun, ready for use.

As soon as he finds the path, he looses his grip and Zeroes crumples to the floor.

“Finn!”

Finn whirls on his heel, heart in his throat. _Oh thank the stars._ Poe’s struggling to his feet, one hand over the wound on his thigh, the other working to lift Rey. More explosions are shaking the walls. He has to work quick. He leaves Zeroes in a dazed stupor, scoops up his lightsaber and fits himself between Poe and Rey. With a hand around them both, he leads them out. Once away from the building, he eases Rey down—now unconscious, fighting the poison. Then Poe. Some ways away, he can see the _Falcon_. Chewie roars, there’s blaster fire, smoke, destruction, but something loosens in Finn’s chest. _They’re almost out_.

“I have to go back in!” Finn shouts to Poe over the roar. He crouches in front of him, tearing a strip off his poncho to wrap around Poe’s wound. “I have to get the antidote for Rey.”

Poe nods, swallowing hard once. “Hurry! We’ll be all right!” Finn turns to go but Poe catches his wrist, expression somewhere between determined and stricken. “You come back to me.”

Finn doesn’t miss the double meaning in Poe’s words. He leans in, brushes a kiss to Poe’s forehead. Pushes the dawning realization of what he’s done, and what Poe saw him do, as far to the back of his mind as he can for now.

“I will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> does the tag deus ex rey make sense now? lololol 
> 
> hope you liked the chapter, let me know what you think!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hooooo boy  
> here we go

The way to the office is still clear in his mind. Finn streaks through the ruined building, purple light from his saber leading the way. He meets one, two stray troopers on the path but they don’t spare him a glance. They’re running as fast as he is, trying to escape with their lives. He lets them go. The door appears; Finn cuts through it. The desk, the drawer, all exactly where it should be. Data files litter the surface. Bounty chits, flimsiplast readouts on Poe, Rey, and dozens of others. Once he has the antidote in hand, he slices through it all. There’s no guarantee that’s everything, but he can’t just leave it. As it sizzles and burns, he goes back out the way he came. And in all the crumbling smoking ruins, Zeroes still sits soporific. Finn pauses, panting, indecisive. Suddenly, Zeroes takes a deep breath, coughing on dark acrid smoke. Finn jolts, lightsaber humming in his hand. But Zeroes isn’t reaching for his blaster. Just staring. Hateful. Defeated.

“How…do you always manage to do this?” he wheezes. “You’re nothing. No more than any of us were.” He spits a glob of blood at Finn’s feet. “ _How_?”

“Have you considered that maybe you’re on the wrong side, Zeroes? Fate hates a bad guy.” It sounds more sardonic than he intends. Truly, it’s an honest question. Finn stares between his blade and his old friend, wondering briefly if this is what he would’ve become if he’d stayed.

Zeroes snarls at that, reaching for his blaster now though his limbs still shake. “We write our own destinies, Eight-Seven. The universe doesn’t care if you’re bad or good.”

“You’re probably right. The universe doesn’t care.” Finn shrugs, crouches, tossing Zeroes’ weapons out of reach. “But people do. It doesn’t matter what you write, because all of this? It’s more than just you. We’re supposed to work _together_ Zeroes, that’s what real people do. We help each other. If you decide that destruction is part of your story, people are going to do all they can to write you out of theirs. And you’ll _always_ lose.”

“You should save the poetic sentiments for people who give a damn,” Zeroes hisses as Finn rises. “I haven’t lost yet.”

A portion of the wall collapses down the hall, smoke and fire belching into the space. Finn cocks an eyebrow. “Looks like you have to me.”

“Your friends _will_ die, I promise you.”

Darkness rises in Finn’s chest again. The temptation is still there. His saber’s still hissing in his hand, simmering with residual anger. It would be so easy to end this, just one sweep would do it. Finn tightens his grip. Stares down at Zeroes, unarmed. At that shadow that calls. In it, he sees a specter of Kylo Ren, the mythic Vader. Others he doesn’t recognize ready to welcome him to the fold. A vision of himself, as though through a twisted mirror. Power sizzles in his limbs. He stands on the precipice, facing down the dark set to bend to his will. It's heady, intoxicating. Exhilarating and terrifying all at once. He could give himself over to it. Have anything and everything, or so it whispers to him. Whatever's lurking in that shadow, it pulls at him like a black hole.

But this time, he takes a breath and recognizes it for what it is. 

Finn deactivates his saber. That’s a darkness he wouldn’t come back from.

With every inch of his will, he turns away.

“I will find you, Eight-Seven!” Zeroes calls after him, staggering to his feet. “You’ll have to kill me if you want this to stop! You’ll be just like me before the end!”

“I won’t kill you.” Finn stops at the door as the building groans. Another wall falls in—there can’t be much more of the building left. The whole thing is ready to collapse flat. The last of it starts crumbling around Zeroes and his hateful gaze. “But I don’t have to save you.”

He leaves. And he doesn’t look back. The _Falcon_ is closer now, ready for flight, boarding ramp open. At the end of it stands Poe, blaster ready, gesturing wildly. Finn reaches into the Force, into himself one last time and runs as fast as he can. Crashes onto the ramp and into Poe. Before he can even take a breath, the _Falcon’s_ airborne then out of the atmosphere then into hyperspace. A medic snags the antidote from him, and only when it’s administered and Rey’s resting peacefully does he relax. _Oh, that was a mistake_. Exhaustion pulls heavy on his limbs. He helps Poe, and Poe helps him, into the _Falcon’s_ round seats. Poe has questions. Finn can feel them simmering just under the surface. But for now, they lean into each other. Relief threatens tears in the corner of his eyes but Finn swallows them down. He finds Poe’s hand, threads their fingers together again, right where they belong.

They’re ok. They’re alive.

He leans back, closes his eyes, and lets go of the dark a part of him still clings to. Then he starts thinking. And all it brings him is emptiness.

Later, after they’ve landed, everyone heads to Medical. It doesn’t take long for Finn and Poe to be cleared. They’re each slapped with a bacta patch for their blaster wounds, nothing more to be done for it, and Poe’s scan reveals no trace left of the poison. Rey’s healing worked, leaving him only enervated. Together, Finn and Poe stand at her bedside until Dr. Kalonia confirms that the antidote is working. She’ll be fine, just needs sleep. And with that, the good doctor ushers them out.

Finn purses his lips, arms crossed, not so easily dissuaded. "Are you sure she'll be ok?"

“The best thing you can do for Rey is to get some rest,” Kalonia orders. "Go on."

“You’ll comm if anything changes?” Poe asks.

The doctor smiles. “I’ll comm if anything changes.”

Finn slumps, glad that Poe asked. He’s too tired. Drained to his very core. If Kalonia hadn’t just kicked them out, he would’ve been dead asleep in the chair beside Rey’s bed in a matter of minutes, he’s sure of that. As it stands, Poe is kind of helping _him_ stand. Part of him feels bad for it, the other part is just grateful.

"We'll be back first thing."

Kalonia waves them off again and Poe murmurs, "Come on," tugging at his wrists to uncross his arms.

“You still with me?”

“Yeah. I’m with you.”

Poe pauses for an instant, eyes appraising, unconvinced. Still, he takes the lead again. Limping slightly and guiding Finn back to their bunk. Out of habit, Finn locks the door. The bed looks so good, so inviting, but Poe’s got other plans. The pilot strips out of his clothes then helps Finn’s lethargic fingers as they work at his own. Ok, fair. They’re filthy. A shower definitely wouldn’t go amiss. With gentle hands, Poe eases him into the ‘fresher. But stars, he’s tired. He’s not even the one that was poisoned and shot. Just shot. But his skin seems pulled taut. He feels worn. Thin. Frayed.

Under the warmth of the spray and Poe’s familiar hands, some of that washes away. Finn turns to putty. Poe works a bar of soap over every inch of him, patient and purposeful. He'll return the favor, he absolutely will. But right now, it's just nice to know Poe's still there. Not afraid of him, or upset. Just present. Finn barely feels the shift in Poe’s energy before he asks,

“So you wanna talk about it?”

Finn sighs, though not in exasperation. Just resignation. “About what?”

“The whole…dark side thing.”

“How did you know it was dark side stuff?” 

“I’m no Jedi, but I know you. And I know anger when I see it.”

Finn stiffens a bit; he can’t help it. Poe makes a quiet noise and steps closer, plastering himself to Finn’s back, pressing a kiss to his shoulder.

“I’m not accusing,” Poe mumbles into his skin. “I’m not saying you’re a Sith, or that you’re bad.” His hands creep around Finn’s waist, resting flat against his hip, his ribs. “You’re the best man I’ve ever known. The calmest of all of us. The most level-headed, fearless son of a bitch in the galaxy.” Finn laughs softly, shakes his head. “I just wanna know…Sweetheart, what happened? I’ve _never_ seen you like that.”

“I was afraid.” Finn tilts his head back, rests it on Poe’s shoulder and sighs again. “I mean, I’ve been scared before but this was different. I’d been having visions of Rey, of you. Dying.” He has to stop for a second, throat feeling too tight. “Just over and over this whole mission. Then it was happening and I…I couldn’t stop it on my own. I just…lost it. I couldn’t let you die. I didn't know what else to do. It was the only thing I _could_ do.”

He turns in Poe’s grasp, takes the soap from his hands and starts lathering as Poe’d done for him. Taking solace in the warmth of Poe's body. Fear prickles at him. He needs something to do with his hands. Flashes of those visions still linger. Reckoning the truth of his words feeds that fear a little more. More than anything, he needs to feel Poe’s really here. That they can touch, connect despite the darkness he'd dipped into. For a few minutes, Poe doesn’t say anything. Just lets himself be taken care of. Lets Finn work through it again. He doesn't push it until they're out of the shower, dressed and dried. Finn’s more grateful than he could ever say for that small concession. It eases the harshness in his heart so he’s more prepared to meet Poe's eyes.

Poe takes his wrist in an easy grip, pulls him down to sit on the mattress. Gently, he asks, “Are you with me?”

Finn considers that question. It’s veiled, but he knows what Poe’s asking.

_You come back to me._

_Are you with me?_

Is he?

Finn searches himself, ponderous. Something feels like it’s changed, but not much. Not irreparably so. More of a slight shift instead of an entire realignment. He's not going dark side, no way, but maybe he's a shade darker than he was before. He purses his lips. Swallows. Considers that and how to give the answer Poe deserves. Poe opens his hand a bit, lays it flat on Finn's thigh. Inviting. Finn eases himself into it, sliding their fingers together loosely. Taking comfort where it is so clearly offered. He pushes out a deep breath and gathers his thoughts.

“I was so _scared,_ ” he says again. “And angry. I’ve never felt anything like it and I hope I never do again. Even at Exegol, I was afraid, but at least there it felt like I could do _something_. Here, it was different. I felt powerless. And it was just there, ready for me to use. It was so easy to turn to it. Then I met Zeroes again on the way out. Had a nice chat about good guys and bad guys." Poe huffs a laugh at that. Finn takes it to be encouraging. "The dark was there again, calling. It could've been easy to kill him, especially after all he'd done to you and Rey. I didn't save him. But I couldn't do it. Right then, I saw in me what I saw in Ren. I didn't want to be that. And it's like...making that choice took almost all the energy I had left."

Quiet lingers for a few seconds. Poe doesn't seem to be angry. More like he's rolling Finn's words around in his head. Finn chances a glance at him. In a very small voice he says, "I know what happened to you, with Ren, and I'm sorry you had to see that. I'm sorry you got mixed up in all this."

Poe frowns, and Finn just wants to curl up and hide. He's pretty sure why that frown is there. It's in the phrasing. It's not _I'm sorry I did it_ because in truth, he's not. And now Poe knows it. It makes his stomach churn. But he can't lie to him. Especially not about this. He just can't.

"Don't be sorry."

Finn blinks. Well. That's not the reaction he thought he'd get. "What?"

"C'mon, I know you sweetheart. And I want to always know you. I can't even imagine what you must've felt. If there'd been another way, more time, you would've done things differently because that's the kind of man you are. If this guy hadn't tried to kill your friends hell, your _family_ , it might've gone down different. You were scared. I get that. You lashed out with the only thing you had and it saved our lives. That is _completely_ different from what Ren did. I'm not sayin' you should do it again, but I understand why you did."

The last vestiges of emptiness and apprehension bleed away as Poe squeezes his hand. Finn lets out a deep breath.

"Without doing what you did, we wouldn’t have made it outta there.”

Finn heart flutters and he gives him a little lopsided smile. “You weren’t so bad yourself. You always have my back, don’t you?”

“Of course I do! Besides, if it wasn’t the poison, I’m pretty sure that guy’s monologuing would’ve killed me."

Finn huffs a laugh out his nose and and leans in as Poe's arm creeps over his shoulder. The mood shifts a little and he feels Poe grow more somber.

"I remember Rey struggling like this before Exegol. You told me I had no idea what she was going through." Finn winces but Poe plows on, murmuring against his temple. "And you're right. I don't. But I need you to know that you don't have to try to face all that alone. We're in this together, always. I don't ever want you to feel like you have to hide from me." 

"I know."

"Rey'll help you with the Force stuff, and I'll help you with the head stuff. Just like you do for me."

Finn's throat feels tight so he just nods.

"You gonna be ok?"

"I really should be asking you that, I think," he deflects. "You're the one that was poisoned."

Poe scoffs. "Taken care of, obviously. I'm not the one that told the dark side to fuck off. I think that’s a little different, don't you? So seriously. Are you gonna be all right?"

Finn takes a moment. "Yeah. I think so. You?"

"Yep." He feels Poe smile against his hair. "You're a good man. Don't you ever doubt that."

Finn laughs a little wetly, straightens up and leans in for a tender kiss. "You're a sap."

Poe comes back for another kiss, smiles against his lips. "Maybe. You're stuck with me though."

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

It strikes him just how true that statement is. More than he thought it'd be, actually. He tips Poe back into their bed, spreads tight over his side. Poe wraps him up, Finn tucks himself into every inch he can find. Tomorrow, they’ll check on Rey and he’ll get back on track. They’ll train, he’ll learn, and the dark side won’t win. Not for the first time, Finn thanks his lucky stars to be where he is now. Leia was right. So was Zeroes, and strange as it is, Finn takes some comfort in that. Fate isn't certain. It's written by the choices he's made. Each step led him here. To the Resistance; Rey. To Poe and a family all his own. The thing he realizes before drifting off to sleep is that good choices are easier to make with the people you love. And what a relief that is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well there's the end of it folks  
> thanks again to gmariam and natthemess for their feedback  
> and thanks to you for reading and commenting
> 
> hope you enjoyed


End file.
